This is me shedding! Trying to work with motivic development and contrapuntal movement.
Improvisation Play-by-Play: Here’s Exactly What I’m Thinking as I Improvise My Way into a Standard
Here’s a captioned play-by-play of exactly what I’m thinking as I freely improvise. Halfway through, a tune pops into my head.
Snarky Puppy Lesson Roundup: 7 Lessons on Memorizing and Retaining Music, Improvising Over Modal and Non-traditional Progressions, and Developing Melodic Ideas
Learning (and retaining) music quickly, navigating non-traditional chord progressions and forms, and finding ways to expand your improvisations on modal and loop-based grooves, these are all things we do on a nightly basis with Snarky Puppy. I’m on tour with them and we just played Utrecht, NL—the city where we recorded “We Like It Here,” it seemed like a good opportunity to round up a few Snarky-related lessons, including one I made during that recording session.
Two Birds With One Stone: Applying the Same Vocabulary Over Both Major and Minor II-Vs
This piece of vocabulary works over both major and minor ii-V’s, making the tune Summertime the perfect vehicle for practice. Remember: your fingers are the time-keeper.
Use Simple Triads to Get Away from Root-Based Improvising
Guide tone lines and triads are a concrete way to sound good over any chord changes, especially difficult, non-functional harmony.
Q&A: How do I put what I transcribe into my solos?
How to put what you transcribe into context and make it blend into your solos.
I get lost easily when improvising
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How to Come up with New Rhythmic Ideas When Improvising
A few simple ideas that will get you out of your “always starting phrases on 1” rut.